Office of Industrial Relations Workplace Health and Safety Queensland

Safe Work Month event planning toolkit Workplace Health and Safety Queensland2

Get involved in Safe Work Month 2016 and show your organisation’s support for Queenslanders’ staying safe at work. Communicating your support to your workforce, their families, and the community helps build a better safety culture.

What is Safe Work Month?Safe Work Month in October is part of a national event that encourages all working Queenslanders to get involved in safety at their workplace, helping to reduce the incidence of death, injury and disease.

Why it’s importantThe majority of working Queenslanders put in a hard day’s work and come home a little tired or dirty, but safe. Tragically though, around 17 Queenslanders die each year as a result of traumatic workplace incidents, and over 5000 suffer a permanent injury. These deaths and injuries carry with them a devastating and personal impact on workers and their families, with a significant financial cost to the Queensland community.

Safe Work Month is the perfect time to remind people how they can continue to make Queensland workplaces safer.

What you can do to improve work health and safetySafety at work is an issue that concerns everyone – employers, employees, their families and the community.

At workEveryone at work plays a role in reducing the risk of injury, illness and death in a workplace.

Hold your own event in Safe Work Month and highlight what your company is doing to make the workplace safer. Ensure staff are involved in identifying risks and finding solutions on a regular basis and work with companies in your supply chain to ensure the safety of all workers involved in producing your product or service.

At schoolWorkplace Health and Safety Queensland has produced a range of materials designed specifically for young workers. If you employ young workers, ensure you share this information with them. If you are an educator, help protect our more vulnerable workers by ensuring they start their working life with the right information to help keep themselves safe.

At homeFor most of us, the most important reason for being safe at work is our family and friends. Take some time to reflect on your most important reason and the things you can do to make sure you arrive home safe each day.

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The benefitsA workplace based event during Safe Work Month demonstrates to your staff the importance of work health and safety. It is an opportunity to:

• send the message within your workplace that safety is valued by the organisation

• give employees the opportunity to speak out on safety concerns they may have

• provide an open forum for new ideas and suggested improvements to help reduce injuries

• talk with new employees and young workers about the importance of health and safety and workplace inductions in your organisation.

Ask yourself…• What do we want to achieve from our event?

• Who do we want to attend (for instance staff, Board members, clients, suppliers and the public)?

• What type of event will they be interested in?

• Who do we need to get approval from to run the event and for any associated costs?

• How will we promote our event?

Once you have answers to these questions, the next stage is planning. The sooner you get started and the more time you allow for planning, the easier your event will be to organise!

Before you get into the finer details of planning a Safe Work Month event, here are some things to consider.

PlanningWho?Decide whether you will organise the event on your own, or if you will work as a team.

BrainstormingGet your team together to come up with your event idea . Allocate someone to take minutes so you can keep track of how your event plans are progressing and any bright ideas that come up during brainstorming sessions.

ChecklistFollow an event plan and checklist to ensure everything is on track and on budget. Working backwards from your event date, agree timeframes to complete each task and who is responsible. It helps to assign team members to different task areas, especially if they have experience in those areas.

Share your event and win!Show the community what you’re doing to celebrate Safe Work Month by uploading your event to our safe work month calendar on our website.

Once you have registered your event you’ll receive a resources pack that will help you promote your event. Remember to post a photo of your event and tell us about it on our Facebook page using the hashtag #SafeWorkMonth.

By hosting your own Safe Work Month event your team has the chance to win Fitbits and a NutriBullet!

Entries close Monday 31 October 2016.

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Event ideas From simple low cost events and initiatives to more comprehensive activities and promotions, hosting a workplace event or implementing a new initiative is an excellent way to show your staff and the community that your organisation is committed to improving worker health and safety. Take some time to think about what your organisation can do during Safe Work Month. We’ve come up with a few ideas to get you thinking creatively!

• Host a family day at the park for your employees and their families. Take this opportunity to recognise your outstanding workplace safety champions.

• Encourage employees to take a walk, run, bike-ride or yoga class to improve their health. Why not host your own fun run?

• Encourage employees to form a sporting team to improve their health and use this time as a way to de-stress.

• Implement a 10,000 steps challenge in your workplace, and provide your staff with pedometers in a fun and friendly “virtual journey” walking challenge.

• Hold a healthy morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea and offer employees the opportunity to raise any health and safety concerns during an open forum hosted by your executive team.

• Hold your own trivia night featuring health and safety questions.

• Encourage staff to implement lunch time fitness groups, such as walking, running, yoga etc.

• Organise a local GP to visit employees and check their fitness / cholesterol / blood pressure.

• Arrange for a nutritionist to visit the workplace to provide healthy eating demonstrations for staff.

• Host movie screening sessions using Workplace Health and Safety Queensland industry short films. These films feature the long term effects of a workplace incident including the financial, emotional, psychological and physical impact on the injured worker, their family and friends.

• Set a target for your organisation to reduce the number of workplace incidents. For example, reduce manual handling task injuries by 50 per cent or set a

We’ve compiled a range of ideas and helpful tools to help plan your Safe Work Month event.

target to work a week with no workplace incidents. Check out some case studies on the Safety Leadership at Work program for inspiration.

• Run refresher training for all staff during Safe Work Month, examples include first aid training, forklift use, fire safety and hazard identification.

• Have a junk food free day or provide staff with fruit baskets during Safe Work Month.

• Display safety and healthy lifestyle messages prominently in the workplace – download our free resources.

• Overhaul your workplace kitchen facilities to provide staff with the ability to store and prepare healthy lunches.

• Make your workplace smoke free – encourage smokers in the workplace to join a quit smoking program.

• Include a Safe Work Month article or message in your regular staff newsletter.

• Create a WHS forum or committee to discuss and find solutions to issues in your workplace.

• Design an anonymous feedback box for employees to raise work health and safety concerns.

• Pick a different safety topic each week during the month (fatigue, stress, slips and falls etc.) relating to your industry and offer quick 5-10 minute presentations on how to manage these risks and hazards.

• Include a link on your organisations website (if applicable) to our website.

• Access the Healthier. Happier. Workplaces. resources provided by the Queensland Government.

• Incorporate work health and safety into team building exercises in Safe Work Month – how many workplace hazards can teams identify at your workplace? Give teams a case study on a work health and safety issue and see what solution they can come up with.

• Hire a consultant physiotherapist to visit your workplace regularly to deal with niggling pains before they become an injury.

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Event Name: 123 Fun Run Date: Saturday, 15 October 2016 Venue: ABC Park, 123 Walk Street, Suburb, State. Phone: (insert venue contact number, name)

Item Estimated costs (use this column to

estimate what you think you should budget, you can add initial quotes

into this column)

Confirmed costs (this column shows

the actual costs; once you have signed off on any quotes and locked in suppliers add final

quoted figures into this column).

Venue hire – ABC Park (licence fees) $600 $650

Catering (list food, beverage, hire of equipment and any other purchases itemised)

$600 $550

Promotional materials (list any posters, flyers, advertising costs here itemised)

AV Requirements/Safety equipment (list costs of projectors, laptops, any technicians required on the day; first aid officers).

Other costs (speaking fees, prizes, photography).

$500

$500

$200

$550

$350

$200

TOTAL $2400 $2300

Why not organise a brainstorming session with colleagues and see what great ideas you can come up with.

Share them with us on social media as well as on our website, so that others can gain inspiration from your activities as well!

Sample budgetUse the below as a starting point when developing your event budget. It is a guide only and you should add in any areas specific to your event or your company’s processes that you will need to allow for in your expenses.

Note that the confirmed costs in the example are lower than the estimated costs.

It is a good idea to roughly cost out your event in the early planning stages so you know what to budget ahead for. If you can, allocate part of your budget as a contingency for any emergencies or unplanned price increases.

Promoting your eventDon’t forget to promote your event to staff so that more people get involved and you are able to achieve your goals. Consider what motivates your staff to take part in activities, and advertise the details through emails, tool box talks or team meetings, newsletters, online etc. Keep your event attendees updated with new event information and reminders in the lead up to your event.

Consider what they will be interested in (for instance, a particular activity, announcement or speaker) and promote this aspect of your event.

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Staff emailsSee our example email (below) that you can use to generate interest with staff about your Safe Work Month event.

NewslettersSchedule and prepare articles that promote your event for staff and client newsletters. Contact us at safeworkmonth@justice.qld.gov.au and let us know what you need.

Subject: Support Safe Work Month 2016 – Work Safe. Home Safe.

Content: Each year around 17 Queenslanders die each year as a result of traumatic workplace incidents, and over 5000 suffer a permanent injury. These deaths and injuries carry with them a devastating and personal impact on workers and their families.

Safe Work Month provides an opportunity for us to reflect on practical ways to improve workplace health and safety within our organisation.

(insert your organisation name) are playing our part to support the month with a (insert event details, e.g. safety themed fun run).

Join us for (insert event details e.g. morning tea, trivia night) on (insert event date) at (insert event time).

The event will (insert further description of your event, encouraging people to attend).

Event Details: (outline any costs to event attendees, add the event location and address, include any dress codes or theme details they will need to know, list the RSVP date, if they need to bring anything with them and whether it is for employees only).

This is your opportunity to share ideas to make our workplaces safer and healthier.

We hope to see you at our event!

(insert signature block)

Staff emailCut and paste this example email into your own!

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OnlineUse your intranet, the internet and social media to:

• promote your event on the homepage of your internal and external websites – make sure people can’t miss it

• take photos of your planning process, the venue and your work health and safety initiatives in action and post them to your website and social media sites

• get your senior executives on board to share their most important reason for being safe at work

• link your event promotions to those of your suppliers and clients.

Facebook photo competitionShare your most important reason for working safely for your chance to win Fitbits and a Polaroid Instant Digital Camera! Just post your photo on our Facebook page using the hashtag #Momentsthatmatter and tell us your most important reason for working safely.

You can pass the message along to your family and friends by sharing and liking your photo. The first 50 photos will receive a poster signed by Safety Ambassador and football legend Shane Webcke.

Entries open 1 September 2016 and close Monday 31 October 2016.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedInFollow WorkSafeQld to receive updates and stay in touch with all things health and safety in Queensland as they happen.

Why not tweet us what you have planned for Safe Work Month? Hashtags and mentions you can use include:

• SafeWorkMonth2016• @WorkSafeQLD• #whsq

Hold your own event competitionRegister your Safe Work Month event for the chance to win a NutriBullet, Fitbit or signed football by Shane Webcke.

The winners will need to demonstrate that their event:

• has high level organisational support

• demonstrates commitment to promoting work health and safety at all levels of the organisation

• is held by an employer for their own employees or supply chain

• has expected work health and safety outcomes.

Visit our website worksafe.qld.gov.au to register your event.

Entries open Thursday 1 September and close Monday 31 October 2015.

Event checklistYou can use this checklist as a guide to ensure you have not missed any important planning details.

It is a good idea to continually add to this checklist during your planning stages and include tasks specific to your event requirements.

Have you: Decided on your event theme?

Decided on your objectives?

Decided who your audience is?

Selected a few key messages to support your overall theme and objectives?

Selected an event date and time?

Allocated an event budget?

Selected an event team, started a planning timeline and allocated team tasks to help organise the event?

Uploaded your event to the Safe Work Month calendar on our website for the chance to win a Gopro or fruit basket

Chosen your venue – completed a site inspection, booked and paid deposits?

Read any terms and conditions thoroughly?

Prepared an attendees list and distributed invitations?

Sourced and booked any AV requirements?

Sourced and booked any catering?

Developed an event run sheet?

Confirmed who will do what on the day and provided them with task instructions?

Organised a photographer who can capture your event?

Sourced and confirmed any approvals you may need from your team members or management

Contacted any local media to get involved with your event, e.g. local newspapers, community magazines?

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Printed suitable hand out materials for attendees, e.g. fact sheets, posters, agenda?

Designed thank you letters or certificates for any sponsors or key volunteers, acknowledging their support?

Received all RSVP’s and confirmed final catering numbers to your suppliers?

Provided a copy of the run sheet to all volunteers assisting you on the day? Scheduled in people to help you pack down the event?

Held a briefing session prior to the event to ensure all equipment is working properly, speakers have had a practice run through and everyone is comfortable with their tasks for the day? Don’t forget to arrive at the venue early to ensure everything is set up in time, set up the day before if possible. De-brief with all people involved after the event to discuss how successful it was and considerations for next time.

Check that your venue has an up to date first aid kit or that you have a kit you can use in case of an emergency.

Packed an ‘event toolkit’ that includes items such as blu tack, pins, sticky tape, double sided tape, gaffe tape, stapler, lots of pens or pencils, eraser, black marker pen, scissors, paper clips, rubber bands, spare name badges, safety pins, needle and thread, paracetamol, bandaids and post it notes.

Venue and AV checklist Check room capacity and ensure it suits your

event requirements. Will it fit your estimated number of attendees?

Confirm with the venue how you would like the room set up (theatre style, classroom, cocktail, U-shape etc) and provide them with a seating chart if necessary.

Decide where you will position your catering area, water/coffee/tea station, AV, computer, decorations and where guests will sit/stand.

Check where electrical power points are located in the room and ensure it suits your event requirements. If playing music or having entertainment check sound restrictions with your venue as this may impact performers and your AV requirements.

Check what equipment you will need, e.g. PowerPoint, projector, microphone, TV or DVD player and if any of these are provided free of charge. Always consider having a back up microphone and a second copy of any presentation files on hand. Remember to sound check the microphone before the event begins.

Do not forget about the registration area, you may need name badges for your guests. This area needs to be large enough to get guests in and out without blocking access to the room or emergency exits.

Check what time you can set up and pack down, some venues let you access the room the day before a big event.

Check the parking requirements at the venue. Do vehicles need permits, car park vouchers etc. Consider whether any guests require special access such as wheelchair ramps or a lift.

Always check the toilet facilities. Make sure they are clean and presentable for guests and that the number of toilets can cater for your number of guests.

Check for hazards, for example slippery floor surfaces. If your event is held outdoors, consider hazards such as wind, heat or even wildlife (snakes, ant bites) and ensure you have ways to manage or minimise the risk.

Important: Make sure you conduct a risk assessment of the venue.

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